Yes, when I decided to record a music video using a couple vintage drum machine apps, an 80's bass synth app, and a vocoder, I was frankly surprised when the end result turned out a bit retro sounding. You see, I was shooting for dubstep. Rats! Consider it a tribute to MIDI, nearly 30 years old and still going strong…

As for your question, if I received a phone call on my iPod Touch in the middle of a raging Thursday mid-afternoon acid techno set at the retirement home, I'd make a mental note to dial back on the drugs just a bit next time, wink at your grandma fist pumping in the front row, and forge ahead through bat country!

If I was using an iPhone, I'd first try putting it in "Airplane Mode" and then turning only the WiFi back on. What is an "airplane" anyway?

Haters gone Hate. They see all your cool gear and get MAD @ their mom. Sounded good to me. What's wrong with throwback music?
1996 was a good year. I wish I could bring those days back. It sure didn't have idiots talking shit on the Internet back then. These fools were still in diapers.

Anyway, this is a tech demo video. I wrote that app on the iPad (FunkBox), the other two apps (BassLine, MoDrum) are the only other two iOS apps that support network MIDI sync like this. I wanted to make a video showing iOS MIDI sync doing device-hardware through USB, device-device through WiFi, and device-laptop through WiFi.

It's not my live set, I don't have one of those any more, it's a few of my dev test devices and some old Electribe patterns I dug up and dragged out from my long and undistinguished years as an electronic musician. I spend my time updating my apps now instead of updating my sound. So it goes.

Synthtopia put the video up here because the tech being shown is new and maybe interesting, not because the music is groundbreaking. Like I mentioned these are the first three apps that support wireless MIDI sync like this, funnily enough all three are retro. There will be more apps that support this sort of thing and that have a more modern sound, I'm sure. That's part of what I'm doing, I'm trying to hype it up a bit so other devs will implement it in their apps and you young punks start getting excited about the possibilities of using it all, and come up with new interesting ways to use it musically.

Setting up three devices like that is maybe a little silly, I had trouble keeping track of it all in the video. But I'm showing it can be done if you decide you want to do it. I could have put more devices in there if I wanted to also, the sync works great with a lot of them. There are some interesting possibilities for synced up collaborative music making and/or interactive art, and I'm sure someone will come up with some way to make something cool using like 10 of them at a time themselves.

Alright, afternoon nap time, then some applesauce, then Jeopardy. Peace!